Verizon announces price, release date for Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet

FILE PHOTO - AUGUST 24: According to sources, after starting deliberations on August 24, nine jurors have reached a verdict, finding that Samsung infringed upon Apple patents on August 24, 2012 in San Jose, California. (Justin Sullivan/GETTY IMAGES)

Verizon customers have something to look forward to this week: the wireless carrier announced Tuesday that it will start carrying Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet on Thursday.

The 10.1-inch tablet will cost $599.99, the carrier said, and will have 4G LTE connectivity. Verizon said that for $10 a month customers can add the device to a shared data plan. Prepaid plans range from $20 per month for 1GB of data to $80 for 10 GB.

The companies announced that Verizon would carry the device at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but hadn’t disclosed the release details until this week.

The Galaxy Note 10.1, like it’s 5.5-inch smartphone cousin, comes with the Samsung S-Pen, which the electronics manufacturer says makes it devices productivity powerhouses. That’s an important trait for Samsung to push as it tries to make its tablets and smartphones more appealing to business customers — a recent focus for the company.

CNET reported that Samsung expects its tablet sales to double this year, in large part thanks to the success it has seen with its Galaxy Note line. The tablet market has become a particularly important one as Samsung predicts that its smartphone sales will start to slow down this year after seeing strong growth in 2012. While smartphones are expected to make up the majority of cell phone sales for the first time ever this year, an IDC report also projects sales in regions such as the United States and Great Britain will slow down as those markets approach smartphone saturation.

Samsung’s been making a point to market its devices to businesses lately, introducing a new feature called Samsung Safe on its top smartphones that’s supposed to lock down business data on a smartphone. The feature, the company said, makes it safe for employees to use their work phones as their everyday phones without having to worry about accidentally disclosing company secrets when conducting personal business.